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Sunday, 18 November 2012

Birding around Taif

With so much birding going on in various parts of Saudi Arabia among the people who contribute to this blog and with excitements such as last weekend's ten sociable lapwing, I am falling behind with my blog postings.This blog reports part of Mansur Al Fahad's visit to south west Saudi Arabia at Eid. Today I am looking at his time spent on that trip in the Taif area.

Tree pipit at Ash Shafa

Some birders go to Taif and are disappointed but others return time and time again. I think its all about knowing where to go.The highland Ash Shafa outside Taif is usually very productive and Mansur found it so too. Ash Shafa is the highest peak in the district and is well signposted and very popular with day trippers particularly in the summer.

While Mansur was there the autumn passage was still in full swing. He recorded his first ever tree pipit (although we saw several together three weeks later at Al Hayer).

European rollerat Ash Shafa

European roller migrate on a broad front throughout Saudi Arabia. His sightings matched others in Riyadh and further east near Damman at roughly the same time.

Common redstart

Common redstart was also seen. It is unclear whether it was wintering or still on passage. Some common redstart do winter in south west Arabia.

Long legged buzzard

The resident birds include long legged buzzard. This species is arguably the third most common bird of prey in this part of KSA aside from yellow billedkite and common kestrel.

Yemen linnet

Some of the Arabian endemics can be found at Ash Shafa. There is no need for birders from Jeddah to go all the way to Abha for Yemen linnet for example when it can be seen in a day trip. I have already reported (with pictures) in a previous blog that Mansur saw red-breasted wheatear (a predominantly African species) here too.

Common snipe

Finding other good birding spots around Taif is mostly a matter of knowing where the permanent or semi-permanent water is. The common snipe was taken at a pool between Ash Shafa and the city.

White wagtail

The two best water sites are probably the dammed area near Al Farah which I know and one that Mansur has found called Ghadir Albnat which roughly translates as Girl's water. Both are on the southern side of the city.

Laurie, thanks for your contribution. The birdforum consensus is that it is a tree pipit since the mantle of OBP is not streaked. Also the bird should be greener. It was pointed out that the face pattern is good for OBP but that it is within variation for tree pipit.